How did that happen?!
To answer that I have to tell you I do not know much of anything about fighting army, navy or air force style, however, most of us can imagine some of it.
Lots of drills, strategy, assimilated battle maneuvers until it's no longer, "Just a drill." It took hours, weeks, months, of hard slogging to reach some degree of preparedness.
Years, and much experience down the road of combat later, will season the soldier learning the ways and wiles of defeating the enemy, hands-on, to increasing decrees of success.
Then, of course, they have their "tools" of the trade-weapons of various defensive and destructive types. Learning how to utilize them to counterattack to the greatest possible degree of precision capability: weapon and man, welded and wielded infusion, geared towards victorious domination...defeat of the enemy.
Correspondingly, this is what followers of Jesus Christ need to do. Ahh, not with actual weapons such as missiles, guns, bombs, fighter jets or tanks. Our ammunition needs to be the Word of God, the Bible. We need to learn that when we acquaint ourselves with God's Word and consecrate ourselves with it, we will also be enabled to defeat our spiritual enemy, Satan and his minions. Ephesians 6:11 (ESV) teaches us that,
"...we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against he spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Our Perfect Example is Jesus Christ, Himself. He was equipped with God's Word (the Old Testament at that time) so that when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He used three "bullets" of Scripture to defeat him.
Three attempts by Satan to defeat Jesus. Three times, Jesus used God's Word to counter-strike. They just rolled off His tongue. He knew God's Word dexterously. Jesus was more than just "acquainted" with the true, living and powerful Word of God. He had it in His heart and mind, the very fabric of His being. We can make it ours too.
The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). Followers of Jesus Christ have the Holy Spirit indwelling them. When we have hidden God's Word in our hearts (Psalm 119:11), the Holy Spirit can use it to bring to our minds, to aid and abet us and help us to defeat the enemy, Satan, and his cunning deceits from having sway in our lives. The Word of God is part and parcel of our "resistance movement".
"Submit yourselves...to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
We do our part and God's Word will have the impact to defeat our enemy.
Piece by piece, don the armor of God. The helmet of salvation protects the head. Satan's fiery darts of doubt can make a person wonder, "am I saved, or not" or other doubts such as, "does God really care about me?" etc. Once saved, always saved (everlasting life is forever). Knowing God's word about these issues is a protection against allowing the enemy an inroad into our minds and lives.
The breastplate of righteousness is given at point of salvation, yet we still need the on-going righteousness (pro-active progressive sanctification) that ties in with being consecrated and this through the "acquainting" of ourselves with God's Word and obeying it.
The belt of truth...where does the "truth" come from? Yup...God's Word is truth (John 17:17). Satan is the father of lies. To counter lies, one needs the truth. The more one has the truth, the more able one will be to shoot down the lies and deceptions of the devil.
Having our feet shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace...familiarity of God's Word, knowing the peace of God and that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, gives us peace and we can tell others about it. Peace also helps us to defeat the upsets Satan thrusts at us and as we spread God's gospel of peace, others can know and appropriate this same peace that passes understanding and will keep our/their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). The gospel of peace keeps one steady against the missiles of Satan and his minions.
Isn't it grand that the shield of faith can "extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one"?! Hold it up there, hold it aloft with skill and determination and persistence. Protect yourself! Life and evil flies at us from all directions; be prepared to defend and defeat whatever is not of God.
How do we know what is not of God? By knowing God's Word like the back of our hands we can discern what is and what is not of God. Having faith in God and His Word allows us to deflect and douse the devil's darts of flame that would otherwise burn us in dismal devastating defeat.
Let us not have pride in our knowing God's Word and having it ever ready at our fingertips. Pride in head knowledge is a very seducing devil's dart, let me tell you! Cover over all this armor of God with prayer! Prayer and supplication and submission to God through Jesus Christ. We desperately need His intervention and realization that it is actually He Who comes to our rescue time and again.
The Psalmist, David, pled with God,
"Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; it is He who will tread down our foes" (Psalm 108:12-13 ESV).
As noted earlier, our foe is not flesh and blood as were many of David's, however, the prayer here can be tailored to our current days' situation. God's Word helps us guard against and defeat Satan and his minions, our adversaries, when we are acquainted with it and consecrated by it. Therein, will a person be blessed by it.
~ERC June 2019~
P.S. Psalm 119 is loaded with information as to how God's Word helps and what it can mean to a person who embraces it.
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